Moral values to be assessed

A Values and Personality Development Initiative programme will begin for all school students from early next year.

The programme will see students receiving a score for how well they display moral values within the classroom, and not just how they answer Islamic Studies and Moral Education exam questions.

Deputy Education director-general (Teaching Professionalism Development) Dr Zainal Aalam Hassan said that the ministry hopes moral values are not only learnt but practised by all students.

“Anyone can learn values but it is more difficult to make it a practice,” he told reporters before the launch of the Education Ministry’s new cinema advertisement on Monday

The programme, added Education deputy director-general (Education Policy and Development) Datuk Sulaiman Wak, is to create more holistic students that are not only graded based on the number of As they obtain.

Most of the time, students are only taught about moral values during Islamic Studies and Moral Education classes, he added.

But these values have been implied and taught throughout the whole curriculum, said Sulaiman.

There would be town halls and workshops to gather feedback and train teachers on how to assess students’ values, added Dr Zainal Aalam.

“Other stakeholders including parents and the local community will also be engaged.”

“It is very difficult to measure moral values,” he said.

He also said that all teachers would be asked to evaluate students as “students do not just meet one teacher in a day.”

For example, Dr Zainal Aalam said students can be assessed on their ability to work together by the way they interact with each other when seated in groups.

“This would also mean those that are more academically-inclined can help the weaker students,” he added.

One of the student aspirations in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 is having firm ethics and spirituality, said Sulaiman.